


On Leadership and Influence

by whatamidoingeven



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, Summer Camp AU, not shippy really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 20:04:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1911987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatamidoingeven/pseuds/whatamidoingeven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc, and Pyrrha are put in charge of children at summer camp, nothing good is expected to happen. And that's exactly what happens- nothing good. Is there a lesson to be learned a midst the shenanigans? Or are these leaders simply doomed to fail?</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Leadership and Influence

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place in a real world au, so there's no auras or anything here. They are just regular teenagers working at summer camp.

Someone in Camp Adventure’s human resources department wasn’t going to get a raise this summer.

Then again, it was hard to pinpoint which counselors would perform and which wouldn’t during the hiring process, and it wasn’t like anything could be done while they were in the middle of camp season. They were stuck with who they started with.

Much to the misfortune of 40 ten-year-old campers.

40 ten-year-olds for eight counselors, divided into two teams of four. Granted, no major emergencies had happened yet. There had been no deaths, just scrapes, bumps, and bruises. The most serious occurrence thus far had been a series of minor burns, coming from Yang’s fascination with fire and the various ‘radical tricks’ she- or rather, her camper genuine pigs- could try to pull off.

There hadn’t been any major catastrophes, but the summer was far from over, and the campers and their guardians seemed to be reminded of that fact almost every day.

“Yang! Yang!!” Ruby’s high-pitched call resounded as the youngest counselor sprinted around one of the camp’s cabins, finding her sister lounging in the sun.

“Hey Ruby! What’s wrong? Aren’t you supposed to be supervising the synchronized swim class?”

“Y-yeah, but nobody wanted to do the choreography. I don’t know why Ozpin put me in charge of that. Weiss would’ve done a way better job.”

“Yeah, but she has that whole deal with lake water she went off about that one time. Something about ‘slime of the commoners’ or something, I wasn’t really listening.”

“Yeah, she’s strange sometimes.” Suddenly remembering her reasoning for seeking Yang in the first place, Ruby snapped out of the comforting chatter of gossip and returned to panic.

“Oh! Right! The PDA! Campers were PDAing! Next to the lake!”

Ratcheting up her intensity, Yang sat as she took off her sunglasses and looked Ruby dead in the eyes. “No way- who??”

Nervous, Ruby gulped audibly, “Johnny Becker and Suzie Calloway. They were just holding hands but-“

“No way!! Johnny Becker?? I didn’t think that kid had _any_ game! Man, I need to give him a high five later! Boy knows how to play the field.”

“Yang, he’s ten.”

“Never too early to fine tune your romance skills, Ruby. I thought I taught you that. “

Ruby groaned, “Yang, you’re not helping. What should I do about this?”

“Why do anything?” Yang shrugged, “They’re just holding hands. No biggie. You gotta let kids have these life experiences. How else do you think they’re going to come up with ‘one time at band camp’ stories?”

“This isn’t band camp, Yang.”

“Oh, you know what I mean.” Yang replied, waving Ruby off. “Just keep an eye on them. Only intervene if you see tongues getting involved.”

“ _Yang!_ ” Ruby whined, pretending to gag at the mere suggestion that something like that would happen.

Yang laughed, but her tone dropped quickly. “Wait, Ruby?”

“Yeah?”

“Isn’t swim class, uh, still happening right now?”

If there was a time Yang had seen Ruby sprint faster, she couldn’t remember it.

* * *

 

“Billy, stop splashing water at Wilbur, or I swear to every merciful god watching this planet!”

A very sunburnt and irritated Weiss stood on the dock of a small, private lake designed solely for the use of the campers. Campers who, at the moment, aggressively ignored the short and angry girl.

For the most part, anyway. “Weiss swore! She swore! I’m telling the management!” A little girl with curly hair wrangled into pigtails screeched.

“I did _not_ swear, it’s a turn of phrase, you spawn of the proletariat!”

“My parents are gonna sue your butt!” The little girl retorted while two boys attempted to drown one another behind her.

Weiss straightened herself, focusing her glare directly at Pigtails.

“Don’t you know who I am?” she began, prim and proper. “I’m Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Oil Corporation! One of the most successful corporations in this country!”

Behind Pigtails, one of the boys who managed to stay afloat despite his peers’ attempts to dunk him, commented, “What’s a corp-air-ation?”

“Still gonna sue your butt!”

Weiss huffed, indignant, and threw her hands in the air as she turned on her heels. Leaving the commotion, she trekked to a small cabin not far from the lake.

As she walked into the small building unannounced, she was greeted with a scene strikingly different from the one she had left.

Five campers surrounded Blake Belladonna, who was currently discussing a story with them.

“Why is this story in black and white?” a little freckled girl asked.

“Well, you see-“

“It’s a metaphor.” Weiss interrupted, each pair of eyes finding her then, “Blake. Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“I’m in the middle of something, Weiss. Can you come back later?”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have posed that as a question, since I’m not actually giving you a choice.”

Sighing, Blake closed her book. “Alright, that’s all for today. Try to finish the next chapter by Friday, okay?”

A chorus of giggles accompanied the campers as they passed Weiss and ran back to the main campground.

“Follow me.” Weiss mumbled as she left the cabin.

“I think I deserve at least a little explanation?” Blake said, trailing Weiss regardless.

“Ten minutes ago Mary Johnson came up to me in my cabin. She was crying,” Weiss began, walking briskly as Blake hustled to maintain pace, “and when I followed her, this is what she showed me.” Weiss finished just as the pair turned the corner. In front of them was the gaggle of campers in the lake, even more chaotic than Weiss had left them.

It was miracle no one was dead.

Flinching instinctively, Blake responded, “Isn’t Ruby supposed to be taking care of this?”

“Yes, that dolt was in charge. Which explains our predicament pretty well.” Weiss answered, leading Blake closer to the lake itself, “I tried to get a handle on the situation. Really, I did. But these… _runts_ don’t listen to me.”

“I can’t imagine why.”

Slugging Blake on the arm, Weiss continued, the two of them moving onto the dock, “They listen to you, though.”

As the pair made their way father onto the dock, none of the children took notice.

“I think I understand why you summoned me.” Blake affirmed, turning away from Weiss and toward the rabble in the lake.

“Okay, settle down everyone! That was fun but we need to get back in order!” She yelled, clapping her hands, doing anything to grab attention from the mass.

Maybe one camper looked at Blake, before promptly returning to spraying water on a pair of girls next to her.

Weiss just laughed as she shook her head. “No, I really don’t think you understand.”

Confused, Blake looked back at Weiss, and then at the lake again. Then back at Weiss. Then to the lake. Finally, she connected the dots.

“Oh no. No, no no no no no. I am _not_ going in there. No way.”

“Oh yes you are!” Weiss replied as she began to push Blake closer to the edge of the dock.

“Weiss, _no_!” Blake yelped, trying to push back against her.

“Don’t be,” Weiss grunted through gritted teeth, “so _difficult_!” Slowly, she was managing to get Blake closer to the water, inch by inch. “They won’t listen to anyone who isn’t on their level!”

“Then why don’t _you_ get on their level!” Blake responded as she slipped from Weiss’ grasp and stepped around her, agile as a cat.

Too close to the edge, Weiss couldn’t stop her momentum, resulting in her tumbling into the lake, face first into murky water.  

When she broke the surface, she was greeted by absolute silence. The campers, who had been watching the entire ordeal, stared expectantly.

Weiss took a deep breath, attempted to regain what little composure she could.

The result was her voice becoming roughly the equivalent of a teapot, ready to boil.

“Listen up, you little…. _ingrates._ The _very_ moment I am done speaking, you are going to exit the lake in an _orderly fashion._ You are to return to your cabins, shower, and be _model campers_ for the remainder of today’s activates. _Do you understand me?”_

Treading carefully, each camper responded with ‘yes, Weiss’ or ‘yes, Ms. Schnee’ in turn. Even Pigtails muttered her understanding as she and the rest of the children made their way to the ladders on the dock and out of the lake.

“ _Jimmy Roger Michael_ , if you _dare_ put that algae in Angela’s hair, _so help me_.” Weiss added, staring down a small boy who promptly returned some algae to the bottom of the lake where he found it.

As the last campers filed out of the water and hustled back to the main grounds, a tense silence settled between the two of them. Blake was the one to break it.

“See, you could have handled that on your own.” Weiss turned to look at a smug and very much dry Blake, looming over her on the dock. If Weiss were looking at something combustible, like the forest surrounding them, her glare would have set it on fire.

“You just have to have a little more faith in yoursELF-“ Blake yelped as Weiss’ hands found the back of her knee, causing her to lose balance and belly-flop into the water.

Blake sputtered, spitting out water as she returned to the surface. “What’s the big ide-“ She turned to Weiss, immediately receiving a handful of water in her face.

“You’re so RUDE! AND INCONSIDERITE! COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE!”

“Me?? You’re the one who couldn’t handle your responsibilities and called me out here!”

“I’M A VICTIM!”

The argument continued, back and forth until the two heard the patter of footsteps on the dock, causing them both to look up at the new visitor.

“H-hey guys! Why are you here??” Ruby asked nervously, noticing the annoyed looks on her fellow councilors. “W-where are all the campers??’

Her answer came in the form of a clump of algae straight to the face.

* * *

 

Things weren’t going well in camp Juniper either, if the sound of loud crying was any indication.

Luckily, the counselors in house Juniper were a little more responsive.

“Matthew! What happened?” A flamboyant girl with bright orange hair and a personality to match asked the boy, immediately rushing to his side. Whenever someone was in pain at this camp, Nora was the first person there- regardless of where the camper was. She was the first to know, much to the amazement and bewilderment of her coworkers.

“T-Timmy…” Matthew stuttered between sobs, “T-Timmy p-p-punched me…”

Almost immediately, the soft edge to Nora’s voice was lost. “He punched you? Seriously?”

Sniffling, the boy meekly responded, “Y-yeah.”

“Are you injured? Bleeding?”

“N-no? I don’t think so.” Matthew answered, confused by the sudden change her voice’s inflection. He watched as Nora rose from his side, looking off into the distance.

“M-Ms. Valkyrie?”

“I’ll break his legs.” Nora mumbled before sprinting towards the horizon.

Ren had just finished baking cookies for that afternoon’s decorating activity when he rounded the corner, out of the camp’s kitchen and straight into Nora, resulting in them both crashing to the ground.

It took him a moment to register what had happened, and by the time he regained his sense of self, ants had already laid claim to his cookies and hours of hard work.

“Oh! Ren! You have perfect timing!”

Ren sighed as Nora hopped off him and he began picking up the remnants of his baked goods. The last thing the camp needed was an ant invasion in the kitchens. “It appears so. What are you planning, Nora?”

“Oh! Right! So one kid- Matthew- he was crying and he was so loud so I asked him what happened and he said that that one kid whose name I can never remember, that one with the curly-“

“Timothy.”

“Right! Timothy! So he said that this Timothy boy punched him! And I thought that was unbelievable and I got so mad, just like that one time with the bear-“

“The fox.”

“-that time I punched that fox for stealing our marshmallows, that’s how angry I felt about this kid hurting, oh, what’s his name again-“

“Matthew.”

“Matthew! That’s how angry I felt about him punching Matthew, so I was determined, I said I couldn’t stand for this, you _know_ how I stand by my morals Ren, and-“

“Nora.”

“Yes, Ren?”

“The plan. What’s your plan?”

“Oh, right! I’m going to break Timothy’s legs!”

“Nora, no.” Ren responded, pinching the bridge of his nose and trying to take deep breaths.

“Nora, yes!” She replied, “And you’re going to help me!” Grabbing Ren’s arm, she tried to pull him in the direction she was going, but he stayed put.

“Nora, you’re not going to break a ten-year-old’s legs. You were going to before, too, and we talked about why you can’t do that here. Or anywhere. “

Pausing, Nora had a moment of clarity. “Oh. That’s right. There are still laws out here.”

“Yes,” Ren said, grabbing Nora’s hand and taking it off his arm, “there are. And we’re still doing the decorating activity today- I’ll just have to bake some more of these.”

Nora watched as Ren continued to pick up the fragments of sugar cookies before she crouched and helped him. “Sorry about this, by the way.”

“It’s fine, although,” Ren countered, turning to Nora with a smile, “making another batch would be quicker if I had help.”

Placing the last of the cookie shards on the plate, Nora jumped up, putting her hands on her hips and sporting a huge grin.

“You can count on me! Together, we’ll bake the _best_ cookies this camp has ever seen!”

Ren chuckled as he grabbed the rest of the materials he brought and headed back into the kitchen. Nora skipped along behind him.

“Try not to blow the oven up this time, though.”

“No promises!”

* * *

 

“Alright, does everyone have their safety harnesses on?”

When Pyrrha Nikos received affirmative responses from the campers behind her, she continued her rock-climbing tutorial. “Now, this isn’t too hard. The cliffs we’ll be climbing are pretty small and easy to navigate, but I want you all to be careful anyway, okay?”

A chorus of ‘Yes, Ms. Nikos’ made Pyrrha smile before she resumed her lesson, teaching the basics of climbing, how to fall properly and how to get over the top of the cliff.

Jaune Arc didn’t hear a word of it, instead listening to the pounding of fear inside his head. _Who put me on this trip anyway? Didn’t I mark that I was afraid of heights on the waiver? Oh god, I forgot I’m scared of heights. Oh my god._

He began breathing heavily and sweating fiercely, attracting the attention of more than one camper at the back of the pack.

“Dude, are you going to be alright?”

“I-I’m fine- you should be l-listening to p-Pyrrha!”

“You look like a ghost.”

Jaune didn’t respond, instead hushing the kids in the back just in time to hear Pyrrha wrap things up.

“Alright! I’ll be going up first so that I can coach you each up individually and help you over the ledge if I need to. Jaune will be the last one up after each of you have made it. Is everyone ready?”

As the campers shouted ‘Yeah!’ in unison and Pyrrha began making her way up the cliff, reaching the top in no time at all, Jaune couldn’t keep his thoughts from wandering.

_Who even made a rock climbing trip for ten-year-olds? Who thought that was a good idea? Oh god, I should’ve lifted more weights before this summer. Oh no, oh no, what if I can’t make it up the cliff?? What if Pyrrha sees me? Oh god, Pyrrha’s already up there, what if I embarrass myself, oh no._

“Jaune?”

Snapping out of his train of thought, Jaune looked up to see that not only was Pyrrha atop the cliff, but so were all the campers, apparently with little to no trouble.

“We’re ready to go if you are!”

“R-Right! I’ll be up in a second!”

Taking a deep breath, Jaune stepped up to the cliff. _This is it. My time to shine. If a bunch of ten-year-olds can do this, so can Jaune Arc._

He found a rock and an edge right away, and was easily able to step up at least twice onto the cliff. _No biggy. This is easy peasy._ Another ledge, another step. He made good progress about halfway up the incline.

Then his arms started to hurt.

_Oh god, I knew I should have lifted more before coming here._

He paused for a good ten seconds, trying to regain his composure before reaching for a small, protruding rock. He grabbed onto it, but as he tried to pull himself up, lost his footing temporarily.

“Jaune?” Pyrrha asked, a note of concern obvious in her voice, “Are you sure you’re alright with this?”

“Fine! I’m fine! Totally fine.” He answered, his foot finding the ledge it was on previously as he contemplated his next move. “It’s just been a while is all.”

“How’d you even get hired in this camp?” a tall boy with a high-pitched voice asked, getting a laugh out of his fellow campers.

“Now Nathan, don’t be rude.”

Nathan pouted but kept his mouth shut, as did everyone watching the proceedings, except Pyrrha.

“Yep, totally fine, nothing to worry about here, Pyrrha!” Jaune commented with unease evident in his voice. As if to prove his point, he tried swinging his leg to the ledge he was holding, missing horribly and throwing his balance enough that his other leg slipped from where it was anchored.

“Jaune!”

Now dangling, Jaune still tried to be cool, “I’m fine! Absolutely finEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYELP!”

On cue, the rock his right hand was latched onto- the same rock he tried to get his foot on- broke, plummeting him straight back to the ground at the bottom of the cliff, his screeches cut off by a loud thud.

“Jaune! Everyone, stay here! I’ll make sure he’s fine.” Pyrrha yelled to the group as she rappelled down the face of the cliff. Each kid murmured something about seeing a dead dude on this trip, and some could be heard placing bets on just how he died.

When Pyrrha reached the bottom of the cliff, she was greeted by Jaune’s loud groans and she promptly checked him over to make sure there were no protruding bones or visceral bleeding.

When she found none, she let out a sigh of relief. “Jaune, are you alright? Didn’t you listen when I was talking about how to hook up your safety harness??”

Jaune paid little attention to what Pyrrha was saying to him, instead focusing on the beauty that was leaning over him and the sunlight backing her.

“A-are you an angel?? Are you my guardian angel? Oh god, am I dead?”

“What?”

“Oh no, that light is so bright!” he yelled, grabbing Pyrrha by the shoulders, “Don’t let them take me Pyrrha! Don’t let me go! I’m too young and beautiful to die!!”

Pyrrha rolled her eyes with a smirk, taking his arms off her shoulders as she moved to stand. “I think you have a concussion. We’re going to need to cut this trip short.”

She turned around then, yelling at the campers on the cliff top. “Alright, we’re going to have to go back to base…”

A chorus of disappointed mumbles thundered from the group, each camper murmuring something about how every trip with Jaune turned out to be lame.

“…but at least Jaune’s not dead!”

Disappointed mumbles turned to loud boos, and Pyrrha swore she heard someone say something about losing money.

* * *

 

“This is unbelievable. I’m amazed we haven’t had deaths at this camp, Ozpin.”

The middle age legs of Glynda Goodwitch paced the small cabin office of Ozpin, the owner and director of Camp Adventure. Ozpin was also in charge of the hiring process- the process currently under siege.

“We had campers left unattended in the lake, we had a counselor threaten physical violence against a ten-year-old, and now we have a counselor injured-“

“That was due to his own negligence.”

“That’s irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that you hired these children to lead other children. You’re putting the lives of forty children in the hands of teenagers who weren’t even qualified for the positions you hired them for!”

“That’s not true.” Ozpin responded, rising from his office chair and moving to the front of his desk, “I insure you each and every one of these counselors is fit to lead these children. Each of them brings something different- something special- that they can teach them.”

Coffee mug in hand, Ozpin now moved to the window at the front of his cabin, facing towards the middle of the campgrounds. There was the main fire pit, where the counselors in question- minus a concussed Jaune- were gathered. Glynda joined him there.

“Yes, they are teenagers, and they have made many mistakes. But I’ve made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child on this planet. I’ve made enough mistakes to recognize that this isn’t one of them.”

Glynda shook her head, watching the group interacting around the fire. Something Nora said was causing a ruckus. “I still don’t know how I feel about having these kids in charge. Something could easily go wrong. They have to be more responsible.”

Ozpin smirked, taking a sip of his coffee, “And they will be.”

He turned around, returning to his desk as Glynda continued to look out the window, watching as Yang played with a piece of wood that she lit on fire.

“By the end of the summer, they’ll have grown into fine young adults and they’ll receive their leadership badges. After all, have you forgotten?”

Glynda turned from the window, again looking at Ozpin.

“I haven’t. This camp isn’t about the campers.”

“And it never has been.” Ozpin swiveled in his chair, taking interest in a piece of paper framed on his wall as he sipped more of his coffee.

“After this summer, these counselors will be met with incomprehensible burden. University. Business. For some of them, war. Each of them will face a different challenge.” He paused, breathing deeply and taking his time to exhale, “But right now, they’re still children.

Why not let them play the part?”


End file.
